Healthcare Finance

Only a week after the National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling broadening the definition of the term "supervisor," the decision has already thrown a wrench into contract talks between a Pennsylvania hospital and its nurses. The NLRB decision held that health care institutions can classify nurses as supervisors, denying them the right to union representation, if their duties …

Want to make sure that skilled physician leaders stick with your practice? An article in the Physician Compensation Report outlines several financial options that help to retain doctors with strong leadership skills, including:

• Offer a stipend for managerial work above and beyond their clinical practice
• Offer a variable stipend--perhaps 5 to 7 percent of net income--as an incentive to grow the practice
• Make sure that in a productivity-based system, …

Perhaps responding to the blizzard of industry and consumer PR, Wal-Mart has decided to expand its $4 generic prescription program from a small pilot in the Tampa Bay, FL area to the entire state of Florida right away, rather than waiting for January 2007 for the rollout. With the statewide rollout, Wal-Mart has expanded the list of $4 generics to include 314 drugs, including oncology drug Megestrol and cholesterol …

Today, nurses and other caregivers represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) plan to take to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to protest a recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling which they say unfairly brands many in their ranks as supervisors. Earlier this week we reported that the NLRB handed down a ruling which held that, among other things, some charge nurses can legally be treated as …

If the threat of closing a single community hospital mobilizes neighborhoods, polarizes physicians and puts local politicians on the hot seat, imagine what the next five years will look like for New York state officials. In a long-negotiated deal, the state of New York has accepted $1.5 billion from the federal government to assist New York in shoring up its ailing hospital …

Uninsured patients seen by Catholic Healthcare West hospitals from July 1, 2001, through September 25, 2006 are now entitled to a 35 percent discount or refund on their bill, following a ruling amending an existing class-action suit. In May, CHW had reached an agreement on the suit, which alleged that it engaged in price gouging of uninsured patients, but the new ruling restructured the payout to ensure that all affected patients received the same benefits. CHW will pay out …

The word is on the street today that a new NLRB ruling will broaden the legal definition of the term "supervisor," a move nursing activists claim is a tactic designed to bust unionization in their ranks. The NRLB has not officially released its ruling on the Oakwood Healthcare case, the most prominent of several pending cases touching on the right of RNs and other workers to …

In theory, the more detailed diagnostic image you can get, the better it is. But some specialists are up at arms over what they say is overuse of a new imaging technology. About 1,000 64-slice CT scanners have been installed worldwide since the technology was rolled out two years ago. Particularly popular since Oprah Winfrey got her cardiac health tested using a 64-slice CT last year, they've become an extremely hot item for cardiology practices that want to demonstrate that they're on …

In Indiana, doctors and hospitals are protesting a plan to transfer the state's Medicaid patients to three private insurers. Providers are vehemently resisting the change because the insurers have proposed a 30 percent cut to physician reimbursement for Medicare patients. Doctors and hospitals say that the steep cuts will force physicians to limit the number of Medicaid patients they treat, leaving a high number of indigent patients to receive expensive emergency care. Insurance company …

A New York Times article observes that while healthcare costs have grown exponentially over the last 50 years, life expectancy has also increased dramatically. In the good old days, a typical American could expect to spend about $500 a year (adjusted for inflation) on healthcare; that figure has ballooned to $6,000 today. But look at the medical advances we've enjoyed: Physicians have discovered how to prevent heart attacks, oncologists have more success curing cancer, and more …